The uncertain future of ISS

The life of the International Space Station (ISS) is expected to be 30 years. Now, there is a risk that it will have to end the task soon after the August 24 incident.

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ISS is the largest space station ever assembled on earth orbit in 1998 and completed in 2012. ISS operates at least until 2020 and may last until 2028.

Change strategy

ISS is actually a science laboratory in a gravityless environment. ISS's unique environment allows testing of systems of spacecraft carrying people on Mars and the moon.

There is always a team of scientists and astronauts on the station from 3 to 6 people of different nationalities. They are present continuously from 2-11-2000 up to now. As of June 2011, there were 28 teams living and working on the station, changing every 6 months.

According to the calendar, a three-man tour team - including two Russians named Anton Shkaplerov, Anatoly Ivanishin and an American named Daniel Burbank - was ready to fly to ISS to replace three astronauts who had been there for six months on September 22 this. However, the Progress cargo ship crashed after leaving the launch pad 5 minutes 42 seconds on August 24 has upset all.

Japanese, American and Russian astronauts and scientists on ISS in March 2008. (Photo: NASA)

Every flight has been suspended until a new order is issued. This incident caused Roskosmos (Russian Space Agency) to consider changing tactics, ending the permanent presence of people on low earth orbit.

Speaking at a press conference in Moscow - Russia last weekend, Deputy Director Vitaly Davydov said: 'Maybe in the future, we do not need human presence on earth orbit anymore. Excluding the possibility that we will return to the previous DOS space station plan '.

According to the design, the Soviet-era DOS space station - including the early Salyut station - had no permanent presence and was used as a rear base to carry out distant future flights. Thus, for the first time, a Russian aerospace official warned that it was possible to evacuate all the astronauts present on the ISS and leave the station empty.

Davydov's statement made NASA officials (US Space Agency) jump. Mike Suffredini, NASA's ISS program director, commented: 'If that's the case, there is a risk of losing the ISS' , although Mr. Davydov assured that no people will be ISS.

High cost, low benefits

Mr. Davydov is not the only official revealing Russia's new strategy. In an earlier interview, the new director of Roskosmos, General Vladimir Popovkin, once said he regretted that Russia was too focused on costly flights instead of investing in fields. lucrative as telecommunications.

The idea of ​​General Popovkin was mentioned in the American scientific community. American Journal Popular Mechanics said that two American science groups of NASA and NAS (American Academy of Science) publicly criticized ISS as a project that both wasted time and cost by scientific research. stations are very limited, benefits are not high.

According to them, it is also much better for the ISS to invest in other projects such as robot spacecraft or conquer Mars.

Indeed, the ISS project has spent too much money and effort of 15 member countries including the US, Russia, Japan, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and England. Each country contributes a scale engineering work that is commensurate with each country.

ISS is a combination of US Freedom space station projects, Soviet Mir-2 / Russia, Columbus Europe and Kibo of Japan. Every project requires a large cost. Therefore, these 15 countries agreed to 'contribute rice to the rice' , implement the ISS project with a total cost expected to reach 160 billion USD over 30 years.

The first module of the ISS called Zarya of Russia was launched into Earth orbit in 1998. Since then, other modules have been launched into the orbit of the US space shuttle, Proton and Soyuz missiles. As of June, there have been a total of 15 modules assembled into today's ISS.

America also wants to quit the station

Not only Russia has considered changing its strategy regarding the fate of ISS. In 2009, NASA also planned to terminate the ISS program in early 2016, according to the presidency of President Bush at the time of the financial crisis.

The Progress ship crashed into the ground on August 24, which was a drop of water that caused ISS to be killed before the deadline. As mentioned, if early November still could not bring up new crews, the 6 astronauts on ISS must be evacuated immediately by 2 Soyuz spacecraft on duty to bring people to the ground while anchoring normally. Live at this station.

The problem is that these two ships cannot anchor for more than 200 days because it is easy to 'sick' for long. The return of astronauts will be dangerous if it expires - October 21 for the first 3-person team and December 24 for the second team.

After that, the ISS will no longer be occupied and only a certain incident of an automated system can become a disaster for the station. Previously, there were still many failures on the station but there were people on the spot who handled it promptly. Although ground control stations still control the ISS, it is difficult to guess what will happen if it is absent.